A government amendment to the Electricity Regulation Bill, which comes before a Dail committee on Wednesday, would be a major setback for the renewable energy sector in the Republic, the Irish Wind Energy Association has warned.
The association, which represents wind farm companies, said the amendment wrongly classified combined heat and power projects - or CHP - as renewable energy, even though they used fossil fuels.
If the amendment is enshrined in law, all renewable energy projects would be given access to all electricity customers, unlike the ordinary power stations, which are operated by the ESB and newcomers such as Northern Ireland group, Viridian.
The association said it would be unfair for CHP plants to have such access when they were similar to normal power stations, not renewable energy.
Such plants operate by combusting natural gas and air to generate simultaneously electricity and heat. Unlike conventional electricity production, the heat is retained and can be used in some manufacturing processes and in heating buildings.
"Under Minister O'Rourke's own amendments, the fledgling renewable energy industry will have to compete directly with CHP," said association chairman Mr Eddie O'Connor.
Mr O'Connor, the former chief executive of Bord na Mona, said if CHP could be offered to every customer, the wind energy sector would be "wiped out".
Several companies, including the property group, Treasury Holdings, are preparing to enter the electricity market in February.
Bord Gais has signalled it will engage in CHP projects and has already installed such a unit in the Guinness brewery at St James's Gate, Dublin. The association said that since CHP was produced from "cheap imported fossil fuels" in large plants with lower costs, it would "kill off possible competition from renewable sources such as wind". The ESB is also understood to oppose the amendment as it believes CHP operators could "cherry-pick" customers.
An opposition amendment, removing CHP projects from the section on renewables, is likely to be tabled when the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport considers the Bill on Wednesday.
